With an urgent requirement to build new businesses following the abandonment of its ETA Systems supercomputer business, and the proposed sale of its Imprimis Technology disk drive unit to Seagate Technology, Control Data Corp is hoping to exploit its residual skills in the systems integration business, for which it needs computers comparable with the ones it has stopped making. It has already decided to hand supercomputer customers over to Cray Research Inc where appropriate, and has now signed a worldwide sales and marketing agreement with Convex Computer Corp under which it will sell and integrate the Convex C Series of minisupercomputers into specific countries, markets and accounts. Under the agreement, Control Data subsidiaries in some countries outside the US will become distributors of Convex products; in applications, vertical markets or accounts where it has a customer base, Control Data will act as the prime contractor for integrated systems incorporating Convex machines. And the salespeople of both companies will co-operate in complementing existing Control Data installed systems with those of Convex. In particular, Control Data will integrate Convex supercomputers with its Cyber mainframes, and a joint technology committee with the mandate to identify areas of possible technical co-operation and system integration will be established by the two companies. The partnership has already resulted in the sale of a Convex C230 system to the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
